Android N Tour: Yes Virginia, there is an App Drawer

Android N. App Drawer. Will they or won’t they? There’s only one thing we can say right now: It has one.

The controversy over the existence of Android N’s App Drawer has been bubbling away in the background for a while, with the number of OEMs choosing to use their own launchers that don’t have App Drawers. The Google Maps twitter account accidentially poured fuel on the fire with the below tweet that was supposed to be promoting the Oscars but showed a render of a phone in a video with a version of Android but without an app drawer icon:

There was a bit of a kerfuffle over it, things were said, feelings were hurt and much discussion was had over the pros and cons of an app drawer. Google even since weighed in on the controversy over the Google Maps tweet, stating that the video simply showed a render and wasn’t supposed to be indicative of a future release. With the release of Android N developer preview it’s confirmed that, well, in this build at least Android N definitely has an app drawer.

As we can tell, it looks and acts exactly the same as the Android Marshmallow App Drawer. There’s no need to freak out. Here’s a screenshot.

The recent apps menu is still up the top, you still navigate by scrolling up and down and the apps are still in alphabetical order.

Don’t worry, though – we’ll check again each build just to make sure 😉

Daniel Tyson

Dan is a die-hard Android fan. Some might even call him a lunatic. He's been an Android user since Android was a thing, and if there's a phone that's run Android, chances are he owns it (his Nexus collection is second-to-none) or has used it.

Dan's dedication to Ausdroid is without question, and he has represented us at some of the biggest international events in our industry including Google I/O, Mobile World Congress, CES and IFA.